The shortlists for this year’s Davitt Awards, presented by Sisters in Crime Australia for the best crime and mystery books by Australian women in 2012, have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Blurb from the book:

Dr Anya Crichton, a pathologist and forensic physician, finds work is sparse for the only female freelancer in the field. Between paying child support, a mortgage and struggling to get her business off the ground, Anya can't yet afford to fight her ex-husband for custody of their three-year-old son, Ben.

Blurb from the book:

Detective Kate Farrer returns to duty after three months of leave following her traumatic abduction. Fearing that she has lost her edge, she reluctantly partners homicide newcomer Oliver Parke, and they are thrown into the investigation of a woman burnt beyond recognition in a house-fire. The post-mortem reveals she had recently given birth, but there is no sign of the baby.

Blurb from the Book

Forensic Physician, Dr Anya Crichton is on the trail of a serial rapist. When two of the victims are later stabbed to death, police suspicion immediately falls upon Geoffrey Willard, recently released from twenty years in prison for the brutal rape and murder of a fourteen year old girl.

About the Author

Kathryn Fox is a medical practitioner with a special interest in forensic medicine. She lives in Sydney. She has worked as a family physician, medical journalist and freelance writer having written regularly for publications including Australian Doctor, CLEO magazine and the Sun Herald. Her debut novel, Malicious Intent, received international acclaim and was the 2005 Davitt award winner for adult fiction. Kathryn is currently working on a TV project.

Forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton is presented with a patient who has returned from her honeymoon with multiple sexually transmitted infections.

Her husband has none of them. She tearfully denies having had any other partners and Anya believes her. Is this a medical phenomenon or has something more sinister taken place?

Anya's investigations into the case leads to a ground breaking study that attracts international attention. Her expertise leads to an invitation to New York to address over three hundred football players in the USA Professional League.

Book Review:

The fifth Dr Anya Crichton book from Kathryn Fox, DEATH MASK combines Anya's forensic physician role with an exploration of professional sport and sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct is too mild a description really - this book explores the very murky world of mob-behaviour, gang rape, drug abuse, violence and professional sport. Set mostly in America, the behaviour is something that Australian's are also more than aware of, the poor behaviour of many professional sports people hitting the headlines here with distressing regularity.

Nobody is going to be all that surprised to find out that whilst I have all the books in this series, I'm behind in reading them. I was, therefore, interested to see how this book would work for somebody who isn't as up to date with Anya as avid followers of the books. It did work, there's enough of the back story to not have a new reader feeling lost, but I doubt there's too much for those seasoned series followers. The book takes place mostly in America, but the world of professional sports seems somehow universal. Whilst there is some sprinkling of a sense of place, the book doesn't rely on this as a central theme. What it does concentrate on is Anya's physician role. Firstly as a counsellor within the difficult area of sexual crime and investigation, then as she is called in as a consultant expert in New York to address professional football players about the difference between right and wrong sexual behaviour.

It seemed to me that this is a worthwhile, and somewhat overdue subject area for crime fiction to tackle, hopefully providing some insight into the whys and wherefores of these men's pack behaviour. The incidence of misbehaving sportsmen is an ongoing scandal, and the issues around it - both from the victim's point of view, as well as the perpetrator's are covered in DEATH MASK. There are moments where I did feel that the book slipped a little too much into lecture mode, something that probably only affects somebody as tutorial adverse as me. But that tone and the fact that it takes a while for the main plot points to settle into position, did mean that it was a little difficult to stay with the early part of the book. Once the plot got moving, and we got into more of the "show don't tell" phase of the book, things definitely improved, and I was surprised to find that even a hefty dose of romantic tension between the two main characters didn't annoy quite as much as it normally would.

Ultimately the use of crime fiction to look hard at the ills of society is well served in DEATH MASK. The nature of those in privileged positions indulging in sexual misconduct, seemingly untouched by personal responsibility, or understanding of the sheer brutality of their conduct, is something that deserves a lot more light being shone into some particularly dark corners of the human condition.

Pressing on with the books by alphabetical order - Kathryn Fox's 5th book Death Mask from the Dr Anya Crichton series.

From the Blurb:

Forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton is presented with a patient who has returned from her honeymoon with multiple sexually transmitted infections. Her husband has none of them. She tearfully denies having had any other partners and Anya believes her. Is is a medical phenomenon or has something more sinister taken place?